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Recommended for furnished let properties, this will protect the landlord from the costs of repairing and replacing furnishing that have been stolen or accidentally damaged by friends or family members.

More than one property?

About Landlord Insurance for Friends & Family

It can be tempting to relax your landlord-tenant protocol a little when it comes to letting to family members and friends, as you wouldn’t want to sour the personal relationship. But anyone with experience of letting to friends and family will advise you that you should still try to maintain a business relationship, and treat your family tenant as any other tenant you let to.

For this reason, it may be easier to use a letting agency or property management company to keep things professional and remove yourself from any awkward confrontations by acting via a proxy. By securing a deposit and having your friend or family member sign a tenancy agreement, you can set the terms of the tenancy from the very beginning and manage their expectations.

As a landlord, you will still be legally responsible for maintenance, fire safety, providing energy performance certificates, and gas safety checks, so it is only fair for your tenant to also keep up with their tenant responsibilities.

If a friend or family member is paying you rent for the exclusive occupation of your property, then you are legally their landlord no matter how formal or informal the arrangement. Your standard home insurance will not cover any rental activity, even if the rent amount is irregular (for example: “whatever you can afford”, or “20% of that month’s earnings”). That being said, some home insurers may still cover immediate family who live in your property rent-free even if you yourself do not occupy it. But you will have to double-check with your home insurance provider as to what they do and do not class as a let.

Our main advice would be to treat the tenancy as you would any other, this includes your landlord insurance.